GEICO is the cheapest car insurance for most Illinois drivers, at $31 a month for minimum coverage and $70 for full, and it's also cheapest for seniors at $68. Auto-Owners has the state's highest MoneyGeek score and has the lowest rates for most cities, plus speeding tickets at $91 a month and at-fault accidents at $106. Travelers is cheapest after a DUI at $128, and Erie is cheapest for teens for around $271 a month.
Cheapest Car Insurance in Illinois for 2026
Updated: July 31, 2026
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GEICO | $31 | 4.57/5 | |
GEICO | $70 | 4.57/5 | |
Erie Insurance | $271-$276 | 4.42/5 | |
GEICO | $68 | 4.57/5 | |
Auto-Owners | $91 | 4.71/5 | |
Auto-Owners | $106 | 4.71/5 | |
Travelers | $128 | 4.42/5 | |
Auto-Owners | $82
| 4.71/5 | |
COUNTRY Financial | $184 | 3.75/5 | |
Auto-Owners | $26 | 4.71/5 |
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GEICO
Best Cheap Car Insurance for Full Coverage in Illinois
GEICO has the best cheap car insurance for full coverage in Illinois at $70 a month with the second-highest overall score in the state. But the main tradeoff is service: GEICO runs a self-service, app-based claims model with no local agent, so if you'd rather sit down with someone for a complex claim, an insurer with local agents may suit you better.
Cheapest Car Insurance by Coverage Type in Illinois
GEICO | $31 | $70 | 4.57/5 |
Auto-Owners | $35 | $82 | 4.71/5 |
Travelers | $48 | $87 | 4.42/5 |
AAA | $52 | $90 | 3.86/5 |
Erie Insurance | $34 | $102 | 4.42/5 |
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Cheapest Full Coverage in Illinois
GEICO has the cheapest full coverage in Illinois at $70 a month. The insurer worth comparing GEICO's full coverage rate is Auto-Owners at $82. That $12 added cost per month with Auto-Owners buys you the state's best overall score and best customer experience. For a full-coverage driver who expects to file claims, the quality of service Auto-Owners can provide you can be worth the cost difference.
Cheapest Minimum Coverage in Illinois
GEICO is the cheapest for minimum coverage in Illinois at $31 a month. Erie at $34 is the one to compare to GEICO, because for just $3 more, you get the second-best customer experience score in the state. With minimum coverage, better quality customer service matters because a strong insurer settles the other driver's claim faster when you're at fault. For $3 more a month, Erie makes processing claims smoother.
How to Choose Minimum or Full Coverage in Illinois
Full coverage costs $39 more a month than minimum in Illinois at GEICO, making that a $468 a year difference. Minimum coverage makes more sense on a car worth less than $1,468, since a car that cheap isn't worth the extra premium. A financed or leased car has to carry full coverage.
Illinois requires 25/50/20 minimum liability of $25,000 for one person's injuries, $50,000 per accident and $20,000 for property damage. The state also mandates uninsured motorist coverage you can't waive, which pays for your injuries if an uninsured driver hits you. Since Illinois is an at-fault state with no personal injury protection, a minimum policy doesn't cover your own medical bills after a crash you cause. Try our Illinois car insurance calculator and check how much car insurance you need before deciding.
Cheapest Car Insurance for Teens and Young Adults in Illinois
Erie is cheapest for 16-year-olds in Illinois, at $271 a month for males and $276 for females, but after that age it splits by gender. AAA is cheapest for nearly every female age from 17 to 25, while the male winner rotates before GEICO alone is cheapest from 20 to 25. AAA is sold through local agents and is the value pick for young drivers with its mid-tier service quality, ideal drivers who want satisfactory a claims filing experience for less. Since teen rates fall with age, re-quote each year rather than locking in the 16-year-old price. Our young adults page and switch guide cover your possible options.
Erie Insurance | $276 | Erie Insurance | $271 | 4.41/5 | |
AAA | $233 | Auto-Owners | $254 | F 3.76/5 / M 4.58/5 | |
AAA | $205 | Auto-Owners | $230 | F 3.76/5 / M 4.58/5 | |
AAA | $166 | Travelers | $194 | F 3.76/5 / M 4.28/5 | |
AAA | $147 | GEICO | $146 | F 3.76/5 / M 3.65/5 | |
AAA | $105 | GEICO | $113 | F 3.76/5 / M 3.65/5 | |
AAA | $102 | GEICO | $102 | F 3.76/5 / M 3.65/5 | |
AAA | $99 | GEICO | $90 | F 3.76/5 / M 3.65/5 | |
AAA | $95 | GEICO | $83 | F 3.76/5 / M 3.65/5 | |
AAA | $80 | GEICO | $81 | F 3.76/5 / M 3.65/5 |
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Cheapest Car Insurance for Seniors in Illinois
GEICO is the cheapest option for seniors in Illinois at $68 a month, $2 lower than its own adult rate, a rare senior discount when most insurers charge older drivers more. GEICO's service score is the lowest of the cheap senior carriers, so Auto-Owners is the alternative at $88. The $20 added cost from GEICO to Auto-Owners gets a senior driver the state's best customer experience for smoother claims. For a senior who expects to file more often, Auto-Owners' better service makes the $20 worth it.
GEICO | $68 | 3.65/5 |
AAA | $78 | 3.76/5 |
Auto-Owners | $88 | 4.58/5 |
Travelers | $92 | 4.28/5 |
Erie Insurance | $110 | 4.41/5 |
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Cheapest Car Insurance by City in Illinois
Auto-Owners is the cheapest insurer in 10 of Illinois's 20 largest cities, making it the best first quote across most of the state, including Aurora and Naperville at $37 a month. The big exception is Chicago, by far the largest city, where GEICO is cheapest at $43, and it also leads Rockford, Peoria and several other cities. Check which insurer is cheapest in your city before defaulting to Auto-Owners.
Bloomington | Auto-Owners | $26 |
Champaign | GEICO | $26 |
Peoria | GEICO | $29 |
Decatur | GEICO | $30 |
Bolingbrook | Auto-Owners | $31 |
Rockford | GEICO | $31 |
Arlington Heights | Auto-Owners | $32 |
Palatine | Auto-Owners | $32 |
Springfield | Erie Insurance | $32 |
Schaumburg | GEICO | $33 |
Waukegan | Erie Insurance | $33 |
Des Plaines | Auto-Owners | $35 |
Evanston | Auto-Owners | $35 |
Aurora | Auto-Owners | $37 |
Joliet | Auto-Owners | $37 |
Naperville | Auto-Owners | $37 |
Elgin | Auto-Owners | $38 |
Skokie | GEICO | $39 |
Cicero | Erie Insurance | $42 |
Chicago | GEICO | $43 |
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Cheapest Car Insurance for High-Risk Drivers in Illinois
Travelers is cheapest for a DUI in Illinois at $128 a month and files the required SR-22 directly, which the state keeps active for three years from reinstatement. Auto-Owners is cheapest for a speeding ticket at $91, an at-fault accident at $106, and a texting ticket at $82 (same as its clean rate). For a high-risk driver, Auto-Owners is also the best cheap insurer, with the best customer experience, so a likely second claim is in good hands. For poor credit, COUNTRY Financial is cheapest at $184 a month, though it has the weakest service of any insurer in the state, so improving your credit saves more than switching companies.
Speeding Ticket | Auto-Owners | $91 | 4.58/5 |
At-Fault Accident | Auto-Owners | $106 | 4.58/5 |
DUI | Travelers | $128 | 4.28/5 |
Texting While Driving | Auto-Owners | $82 | 4.58/5 |
Bad Credit | COUNTRY Financial | $184 | 2.02/5 |
Your Next Step:
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How to Get Cheaper Car Insurance in Illinois
In Illinois, the most you can save comes down to your credit and how much coverage you carry. Improving your credit moves your rate the most, and dropping from full to minimum saves $39 a month at GEICO.
- 1
Compare at least three insurers and save $32 a month
Illinois full-coverage rates range from GEICO's $70 to Erie's $102, a $32 difference. Quote GEICO, Auto-Owners and one more before renewing, since the cheapest name changes with your profile and city.
- 2
Match your coverage to your car's value and save $39 a month
Full coverage costs $39 more a month than minimum at GEICO, $70 versus $31. On an older car worth little, minimum can make sense, though a financed or leased car requires full coverage.
- 3
Bundle home and auto in Illinois and save money
Allstate has the state's cheapest home and bundle in Illinois at $2,677 a year, while Farmers offers the biggest discount but a higher total. Neither GEICO nor Auto-Owners leads the bundle, so combining home and auto likely means a different insurer, worth comparing the full price against your standalone rate.
- 4
Re-shop after a violation and recover $41 per month
Travelers prices a DUI $41 a month above its own clean rate. Since Illinois keeps the SR-22 active for three years from reinstatement, re-quote once that window closes to drop the increase.
- 5
Improve your credit before renewal and save money
Credit is the biggest lever in Illinois. COUNTRY Financial has the cheapest poor-credit rate at $184 a month, so raising your credit tier before renewing saves more than any carrier switch.
- 6
Enroll in an insurer discount program
GEICO DriveEasy tracks your driving through the app and can lower your rate at renewal, though poor scores can raise it.
Travelers IntelliDrive monitors your driving for 90 days and can lower your rate, though it can also raise it for poor driving. Illinois-specific discount figures are not published, so ask for the current rate.
MoneyGeek analyzed car insurance rates from Quadrant Information Services, collected from state insurance filing records across all residential ZIP codes in Illinois. Carriers are required to file rates with the state regulator before charging them, so these are filed rates, not estimates or online quote approximations.
Carriers analyzed: Rates were collected from carriers with meaningful market share in Illinois, including GEICO, Auto-Owners, Travelers, AAA and Erie, among others.
Baseline driver profile: A 40-year-old male driving a 2012 Toyota Camry LE with a clean driving record, good credit and 12,000 miles annually. No prior claims. Full coverage uses 100/300/100 liability limits with a $1,000 deductible for both collision and comprehensive. Minimum coverage uses Illinois's state-mandated minimums, 25/50/20 liability ($25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 per accident, $20,000 property damage), plus the required uninsured motorist coverage at 25/50 limits.
Profile variations used in this analysis:
- Young drivers: ages 16 to 25, standalone policy, rated separately by gender. Gender is a permitted rating factor in Illinois.
- Seniors: 70-year-old driver, same vehicle and coverage as the baseline.
- Violations: baseline profile with one driving record variable changed at a time, all other variables held constant. Violations analyzed: speeding 11 to 15 mph over the limit, at-fault accident ($1,000 to $1,999 property damage), DUI (BAC at or above .08) and texting while driving.
- Poor credit: baseline profile with credit tier changed to poor. Illinois permits credit-based insurance scoring, so credit affects rate in this state.
- Coverage tier: full coverage (100/300/100 with $1,000 deductible) and Illinois minimum coverage (25/50/20 with required uninsured motorist coverage).
USAA exclusion: USAA is excluded from all provider tables; it is available only to military members, veterans and their immediate families. Eligible drivers should include USAA in any quote comparison.
Scoring: MoneyGeek scores carriers on three factors. Affordability (60% of score), normalized rates across all carriers within each driver profile, where a lower rate relative to competitors equals a higher affordability score, calculated separately per driver profile. Customer Experience (30% of score), five components: J.D. Power survey results, NAIC complaint index, AM Best financial strength ratings, agent network ratings and Google Business ratings, with 2024 to 2025 data weighted twice as heavily as older data. Coverage Options (10% of score), number of add-on coverages available (80%) and included benefits or unique options (20%).
About Mark Fitzpatrick
Mark Fitzpatrick, a licensed Property and Casualty (P&C) Insurance Producer in Connecticut, is MoneyGeek's resident expert in insurance and economics. He has spent nearly a decade covering the market, first at LendingTree and now at MoneyGeek, where he analyzes hundreds of carriers and millions of rates across auto, home, renters, health and life insurance.
His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times and NPR. He draws on independent cost and consumer experience data, and no insurance company partnerships influence his recommendations.
Mark studied at Boston College before earning a master's in economics and international relations from Johns Hopkins University. Before MoneyGeek, he worked in financial risk management at State Street. He's also a five-time “Jeopardy!” champion.
Sources
- Illinois General Assembly. "Vehicles." Accessed August 5, 2026.